PROFILE LINDA LOMAHAFTEWA to painting and began working in oils. Astonishingly, Hopi Spirits and Unknown Spirits are two of her first paintings, HOPI/CHOCTAW PRINTMAKER AND PAINTER completed when she was only 18 years old. They each express her connection to place through absence and presence. LINDA LOMAHAFTEWA An abstract vision of Hopi spirits gaze from an intimate distance outward and By Jean Merz-Edwards amplify Lomahaftewa’s absence from her home in Arizona. In contrast, a distant “For decades Linda has been a promi- Lomahaftewa, in the spring of 1961, “I got view of mountains—much like the Sangre nent figure in contemporary Native art. a phone call from my mom, and she read de Cristo Mountains visible from Santa Her paintings demonstrate a wonderful in the paper that they would be opening Fe—solidify Lomahaftewa’s presence in a strength informed by her culture placed up this new Indian art school in Santa Fe, place with unknown spirits. Finally, they in a contemporary context.”1 and it’ll be headed up by Lloyd New, who denote the starting point of a journey —Joe Feddersen (Okanagan/Sinixt) was one of her teachers when she went centering Lomahaftewa within the story [to the] Phoenix Indian School.”3 That of Native American art. PPORTUNITY RARELY summer Lomahaftewa and her mother AFFORDS us the benefit of filled out the application. In the fall of CALIFORNIA DAYS visiting with a living legend. 1962, Lomahaftewa began her sophomore “I WAS TAUGHT to believe in myself, Whether it be the scarcity O year in the first high school class at the that’s how I grew up,” Lomahaftewa of such individuals or our proximity to Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA). shares. “I was painting landscapes while them, an encounter with such a person As an IAIA student, Lomahaftewa they were painting from models.… I happens once in a lifetime—if we are developed skills under the guidance of lucky. Fortunately, within the world of teachers such as Allan Houser (Chiricahua explained myself to my teachers, and they Native American art, one need not look Apache), Charles and Otellie Loloma never bothered me again.” any further than Hopi/Choctaw artist (both Hopi), Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee Long before decolonization entered and educator Linda Lomahaftewa for this Nation), Fritz Scholder (Luiseño), and popular culture’s vernacular, Linda experience. From her early days as part of Josephine Wapp (Comanche). Another Lomahaftewa embodied it as a college the avant-garde group who helped birth taught Linda how to sew. Clifford was a of Lomahaftewa’s teachers, the assistant student. In 1965 after her IAIA high school contemporary Native American art and member of the Sun Clan and regularly director of arts, James McGrath, wrote, graduation, Lomahaftewa headed to the throughout decades of a thriving career, took Linda and the rest of the family back “People working with her will be puzzled San Francisco Art Institute in pursuit of Lomahaftewa has been central to the story to his home at Songòopavi on Second by her silence, but this is her strength. She her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in fine of Native American art. 4 Mesa. Linda’s parents and four siblings works, knows, and feels deeply.” arts. For the first time she encountered BEGINNINGS continually encouraged Linda in her art. The synergy among the talented European teaching methods for making Hopi Spirits (1965) and Unknown and emerging artists in those early days at art. Unlike the experimental approach of “FOR ME, the artistic process can be Spirits (1965) mark two of Lomahaftewa’s IAIA gave birth to a new art. Lomahaftewa IAIA where tribal identity grounded one’s recalls, “Painting was all experimental. described as unlearning and remem- earliest known works and illustrate her creations, SFAI’s approach rooted itself in There was no technique taught in the bering: ‘unlearning’ the overlay of connection with Hopiland. In Hopi European practices, like drawing from a class. We all learned from each other.… Landscapes, barren or occupied, European culture values and ‘remem- Spirits, abstracted figures represent Hopi live nude model and adhering to the rules They would bring visitors and show us show up again and again in Lomahaftewa’s bering’ the basics, where I receive my spirits. In Unknown Spirits, however, the of perspective. examples of other people’s work, but when art and appear distinctively original. In strength …” Lomahaftewa once wrote. abstracted subject matter does not so it was time to paint, they said, ‘Go for it!’ The miraculous thing is that Pink Clouds and Desert, painted in 1970 at “My imagery comes from being Hopi and easily reveal itself. A layer of white-over- … As a group, we were making contempo- Lomahaftewa gently and successfully SFAI, three pink clouds correspond with remembering the shapes and colors from dark underpainting in the upper third of 5 resisted this approach. Sure, she appre- rary Native American art.” Classmates in one another through their curvilinear, Crescent Moon XIV, ceremonies and landscape.”2 above the canvas moves downward to meet with this group, many of whom would become ciated and learned from the different biomorphic forms as they hover above a 1999, monotype on paper, 151/8 Since her post-World War II birth peak-like structures. These peaks crown lifelong friends, included Earl Biss aesthetic presented. Who doesn’t landscape comprised of colors, patterns, × 111/8 in., collection of the IAIA in Phoenix, Arizona, Lomahaftewa’s the variations of blue, grey, and plum Museum of Contemporary (Crow), T. C. Cannon (Kiowa/Caddo), appreciate the colors and shapes of a and shapes that work together to create a Native Arts, H-396. Both images connection to family and place remains that dance in a mist of white, similar to Karita Coffey (Comanche), Phyllis Fife Kandinsky masterpiece? However, she did formation that recalls patchwork quilts. courtesy of the IAIA Museum of a theme in life and work. Her parents, mountains in a snowstorm. (Muscogee), Hank Gobin (Tulalip), and not succumb to the story of a universal This style speaks about the artist’s rela- Contemporary Native Arts. Mary (Choctaw) and Clifford (Hopi, Taken together, Hopi Spirits and Kevin Red Star (Crow), among others. aesthetic in the guise of a masculine, tionship with place, her home back in opposite Linda Lomahaftewa. Photo: Jason Ordaz. 1920–2002), met at Phoenix Indian School. Unknown Spirits offer insight into the During her senior year, Lomahaftewa European art. A teacher once asked if she Arizona, and her relationship with her Mary, who sews quilts and ribbonwork, artist’s early training. According to changed her major from commercial art knew what she was doing—painting a mother, an avid quilter. Coincidentally, 1. Joe Feddersen, email to author, August 18, 2019. landscape with corn and other things she while Lomahaftewa painted this work 2. Linda Lomahaftewa, “Artist’s Statement,” in After 5 P.M. … and on Weekends (Santa Fe: Institute of American Indian Arts, 1991), 39. knew—while her classmates painted from in San Francisco, three hours away, Judy 3. Transcript of Oral History Project, 2008, IAIA-MS012.01, Linda Lomahaftewa archive file, Institute of American Indiana Arts, Santa Fe, NM. a model. Instead, she continued devel- Chicago was launching the first Feminist 4. Correspondence from Jim McGrath to the San Francisco Art Institute Scholarship Committee, n.d., Linda Lomahaftewa archive file, Institute of American Indian Arts, Santa Fe, NM. oping an autonomous aesthetic rooted in Art Program—a program that celebrated 5. Unless otherwise noted, information and quotes attributed to Linda Lomahaftewa in this article derived from discussion with the author, August 2019. her connection to family and place. “woman’s craft”— at Fresno State College 46 | WWW.FIRSTAMERICANARTMAGAZINE.COM FALL 2019 | 47 PROFILE LINDA LOMAHAFTEWA Native American artists connected with history, Lomahaftewa also participated Rupert Costo (Cahuilla) and Jeannette in the Occupation of Alcatraz while she Henry Costo in San Francisco. was a student in San Francisco. The young Rupert, who grew up on the artist exhibited work inspired by Alcatraz Cahuilla Reservation near Riverside, spent and Wounded Knee in exhibitions of his life advocating for Indigenous rights. politically-conscious artwork. Together, Rupert and Jeanette founded Fortunately some of Lomahaftewa’s the American Indian Historical Society art from her SFAI student days remain. and the Indian Journal in order “to correct The Heard Museum, which holds the record, to write history as it should be Lomahaftewa’s archives, has in its collec- written, to interpret correctly the aborig- tion a few majestic oil paintings from this inal past, to report honestly the immense period. IAIA also has a large collection of contributions to modern society made by works and documents from Lomahaftewa’s the Indian American.”6 prolific career, including SFAI work. In In their unwavering quest to 2017 IAIA exhibited a small collection educate the public, the couple “fought of various sketches from Lomahaftewa’s for the scholarly representation of Indians college notebooks. Consistent with her rather than the stereotypes they found general oeuvre, each sketch reflects the art prevalent”7 and helped establish the of a woman central to the story of Native American Indian Studies program in the American art, whether a colorful, moun- University of California system. Rupert tainous landscape or a conglomeration of and Jeannette Henry Costo connected anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figures the young IAIA alumni with the greater that emerge from intricate ink patterns to Native American arts community in the form a surreal landscape. Bay Area. Under the mentorship of the Costos, Lomahaftewa exhibited her work with the American Indian Historical THE TEACHING YEARS Society in San Francisco among other “I TELL MY STUDENTS that individu- venues in California.